The Poor People's Campaign of 1968 set out demands for nothing less than the eradication of poverty. Yet 50+ years later racism is waxing not waning, 40 million Americans live in poverty, the top 1 percent has more wealth than the bottom 90 percent, and 'just 1 in 10 black Americans believe civil rights movement's goals have been achieved in the 50 years since Martin Luther King Jr was killed' (The Independent, 31 March 2018). Clearly, what is needed is not a re-launch but rather a rethink. Oscar Wilde explains why: ‘their remedies do not cure the disease: they merely prolong it. Indeed, their remedies are part of the disease. They try to solve the problem of poverty, for instance, by keeping the poor alive; or, in the case of a very advanced school, by amusing the poor. But this is not a solution: it is an aggravation of the difficulty. The proper aim is to try and reconstruct society on such a basis that poverty will be impossible’ (The Soul of Man under Socialism, 1891).
The Civil War was supposed to end inequality. Yet, a century later the Civil Rights Movement was waged to bring about equality, as what difference had been realised, was no where near substantial enough. It took Michael Brown in Ferguson, over 50 years later, to bring about another call to equalise the nation. The inconvenient truth is that those in charge of the structure will do their utmost, to change the least. Perhaps that will change when the elite are more diverse, until then any legislation is likely to be yet another round of placation.
The Poor People's Campaign of 1968 set out demands for nothing less than the eradication of poverty. Yet 50+ years later racism is waxing not waning, 40 million Americans live in poverty, the top 1 percent has more wealth than the bottom 90 percent, and 'just 1 in 10 black Americans believe civil rights movement's goals have been achieved in the 50 years since Martin Luther King Jr was killed' (The Independent, 31 March 2018). Clearly, what is needed is not a re-launch but rather a rethink. Oscar Wilde explains why: ‘their remedies do not cure the disease: they merely prolong it. Indeed, their remedies are part of the disease. They try to solve the problem of poverty, for instance, by keeping the poor alive; or, in the case of a very advanced school, by amusing the poor. But this is not a solution: it is an aggravation of the difficulty. The proper aim is to try and reconstruct society on such a basis that poverty will be impossible’ (The Soul of Man under Socialism, 1891).
ReplyDeleteThe Civil War was supposed to end inequality. Yet, a century later the Civil Rights Movement was waged to bring about equality, as what difference had been realised, was no where near substantial enough. It took Michael Brown in Ferguson, over 50 years later, to bring about another call to equalise the nation. The inconvenient truth is that those in charge of the structure will do their utmost, to change the least. Perhaps that will change when the elite are more diverse, until then any legislation is likely to be yet another round of placation.
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